The invention relates generally to fishing lures, and particularly to a snag-resistant fishing lure assembly.
Fishing is a popular recreational pastime. One favorite style of fishing involves casting a fishing lure and retrieving the lure to catch fish. The retrieve entices fish to strike the lure. Lures are available in almost an infinite variety of shapes, weights, and buoyancy.
A lure must be cast near fish to be effective. When fishing in open waters, lures can be retrieved without snagging. Many game fish, though, avoid open water and congregate or school close to underwater structure. Such structure may include tree stumps, vegetation, rocks, or other objects. Casting the lure among these objects is often the key to successfully catching fish.
Lures often snag when retrieved through structure. The lure snags against the structure and can""t be retrieved until the snag is cleared. The fishing line often must be cut to continue fishing, and the lure is lost.
Many conventional fishing lures have bodies that tend to snag obstacles. FIG. 1 illustrates snagging of a conventional lure body, with a jig 1 snagged against structure 2. A jig is a fishing lure having a weighted jig head 3 and a barbed fishhook 4 extending rearwardly from the jig head. The hook is typically dressed with a plastic bait or natural bait (not shown) to attract fish. The fishhook has an eyelet 5 at the front of the jig for attaching the fishing line 6. The line is attempting to retrieve the jig in a retrieval direction R.
As shown in the figure, the jig presents an abrupt increase in cross section area transitioning from the fishing line at the eyelet to the jig head. The fishing line can slide against the object during the retrieve, but the abrupt change prevents the jig head from sliding smoothly past the object and causes it to snag against object 2.
Other conventional fishing lures have bodies that resist snagging when fished through structure. Such lures have xe2x80x9cstreamlinedxe2x80x9d bodies, that is, the body has a relatively sharp and pointed leading end that smoothly tapers outwardly from the front of the lure. These lure bodies are xe2x80x9cinherently snaglessxe2x80x9d in that the body shape enables the body to pass by or engage structure or obstacles and resist snagging.
Fishing lures, regardless of body type, include other components that tend to snag obstacles. These include the fish hooks attached to the body and, for crank baits, lips or bills that extend from the front of the body to impart action, control depth or provide stability during retrieve.
Weed guards or hook guards that resist snagging of fishhooks are well known. These guards do not prevent snagging of lure bodies.
Other guards have been developed that resist snagging of lips or bills. Such lip guards are disclosed, for example, in Landuyt, U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,365 and Thirlby, U.S. Pat. No. 4,129,957. Both Landuyt and Thirlby disclose lip guards that attach to a lip and precede the lip during retrieve. Obstacles encountering the lip guard are diverted to one side of the lip or the other. Because the lip extends from the lure body, some obstacles are directed by the lip guard against the lure body.
Lip guards do not prevent snagging of lure bodies. In fact, because lip guards direct some obstacles against the lure body, the guards must be used with xe2x80x9cinherently snaglessxe2x80x9d lure bodies. Otherwise, lip guards would direct obstacles to snag against lure bodies such as the body shown in FIG. 1. Furthermore, because lip guards are directly attached to the lip and pull on the lip during retrieve, they can interfere with proper functioning of the lip and impair lure performance.
Other conventional lures are fished with tapered or conical weights that slide on the fishing line ahead of the lure to form a snag-resistant fishing lure assembly. An example of such an assembly is known as the xe2x80x9cCarolina rigxe2x80x9d for fishing plastic worms. Snag-resistant weights cannot be used with all lures, however, and may destroy the action and desired buoyancy of the lure.
Thus
Thus there is a need for an improved snag-resistant apparatus or snag guard for use with fishing lures. The snag-guard should be usable with lure bodies that are not xe2x80x9cinherently snaglessxe2x80x9d as well as those that are xe2x80x9cinherently snaglessxe2x80x9d. The snag guard should be lightweight to not substantially affect the buoyancy and action of the lure, should be readily adaptable for use with many types of conventional fishing lures, and should not substantially impair the performance of lures having a bill or lip.
The invention is an improved snag-resistant fishing lure assembly including a fishing lure and snag guard. The assembly is light weight and can be adapted for use with many types of conventional lures, including jigs and crankbaits.
A fishing lure assembly in accordance with the present invention includes a fishing lure having a body and a fishhook connected to the body. The body includes first and second outer surfaces separated by a width of the body; the surfaces on a transverse body cross section having a substantial cross section area.
A light-weight snag guard is mounted to the body to resist snagging of the lure by foreign objects. The snag guard includes an elongate guard member extending proximate from the first body surface to proximate the second body surface. An intermediate portion of the snag guard is spaced from and precedes the fishing lure so that when the lure is pulled by the fishing line, the snag guard contacts foreign objects ahead of and in the path of the lure. The guard member has a smooth leading surface to slide against foreign objects without snagging.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the snag guard is formed from the free end of the fishing line and extends through a bore formed in the lure body. The snag guard can pivot or rotate in the bore to enable the lure body to pivot about the snag guard and slide past some obstructions. In yet other preferred embodiments of the invention the snag guard can be preformed and mounted on the fishing lure for later attachment to the fishing line.
The snag guard of the present invention provides a number of benefits over conventional snag guards. The snag guard can be used with lure bodies that are not xe2x80x9cinherently snaglessxe2x80x9d, as well as lure bodies that are xe2x80x9cinherently snaglessxe2x80x9d. It can be used on lures that do not have lips or bills. But it can be used on lures with bills or lips without being attached to the bills or lips, and yet will reduce the risk of the bills or lips snagging against obstacles during the retrieve.
Using the improved fishing lure assembly of the present invention with jigs while fishing for bass along the shore of the Susquehanna River reduced the number of snags to about ⅕ of what would be expected of a conventional jig tied directly to the fishing line. The greatly increased number of snag-free casts increased the number of fish caught and improved the quality of the time spent fishing.
Other objects and features of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds, especially when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings illustrating fishing lure assemblies of the present invention, of which there are six sheets of six embodiments.